Corinth Bridge to be replaced

From Staff Reports

The Corinth Road bridge is to be replaced this month.

Benton County will begin two major bridge projects this month, including replacement of the Corinth Road Bridge.

Jeff Clark, county public services administrator and head of the Road Department, said work on a new bridge for Corinth Road will begin Jan. 25 and is scheduled to be done by June 3.

The bridge, which spans Limekiln Hollow Creek in northeastern Benton County, was destroyed by floods on Aug. 8, 2013, Clark said.

The lack of a bridge has meant a 10-minute detour, he said. The county didn't have to do a traffic count as part of the design work to qualify for FEMA money to replace the bridge, Clark said.

Work on the Corinth Road Bridge took longer than usual because of changes needed to meet state and federal regulations, said County Judge Bob Clinard. Marshal Watson, county emergency services administrator, said the new bridge couldn't be built as the original bridge was in the 1940s or 1950s, which also complicated the FEMA approval process.

"FEMA is here to assist you in returning your community to pre-disaster conditions," Watson said. "In this case, we can't technically rebuild that bridge in the same style that was there and still have it meet current standards. That changes the scope of the work completely."

The cost to replace the bridge will be $483,767, he said.

"It's not a major bridge for the county, but for the folks who live out there, it's major," Clark said.

The new bridge will be 43 feet long and 23 feet wide. The bridge surface will be 5 to 10 feet higher than the old bridge to partly reduce damage from any future flooding. The county had to seek a waiver from state requirements that the bridge be built to withstand a 25-year flood event, Clark said. The bridge site sits a few feet off North Old Wire Road and raising the height of the bridge would have necessitated raising that roadway as well, he said.

The old bridge had a pier in the middle of the span, and the new design is for a three-sided span that's completely open through the middle of the creek bed to reduce flooding damage, Clark said.

"That should alleviate a lot of problems with sediment building up and debris hanging up in the middle of the bridge," Clark said.